February 25, 2015 – Today would have been Millicent Fenwick’s 115th birthday. And despite passing away more than twenty years ago she continues to live on. In the past few weeks, I’ve received three Fenwick related requests. The first was for permission to use a photo in the book of a young Millicent with her sister, Mary, and mother, Mary Picton Stevens Hammond, the latter of whom died on the Lusitania. The photo will be used in an exhibit opening this fall about New Jersey during the decade from 1910-1920. The exhibit will highlight the sinking of the Lusitania by the Germans in 1915 and the photo will represent a New Jersey life lost in that tragedy.
The second inquiry came last week and it was about Fenwick’s self-pity quote, one of many memorable quotes attributed to Fenwick. And the third request was about giving a Lusitania related talk to commemorate the centennial of the Germans torpedoing the Lusitania which resulted in nearly 1,200 deaths, including Mary Hammond and 127 other Americans as well as passengers from more than 20 countries. For someone who has been deceased a long time both Millicent Fenwick and her mother are still getting a lot of traction.
For more about the Lusitania, see my blog post from May 7, 2013
Six Degrees of Millicent 